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Schoolhouse instructors train lifeliners on vehicle recovery

Written by Spc. Michael Vanpool
101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs

101st Sustainment Brigade - LifelinersFort Campbell KY, 101st Airborne DivisionBagram Airfield, Afghanistan – A deployment calls for a different skill set than the garrison Army life as many soldiers expand their knowledge with on the job training.

Those soldiers have formal classroom training and the same program as the schoolhouse. The only difference, instead of traveling to the school, the classroom came to them.

Instructors from the US Army Ordnance Center and School recently deployed to Afghanistan to train Soldiers outside the schoolhouse, including a Vehicle Recovery Course for soldiers of the 101st Sustainment Brigade.

Spc. Larry Smith, a mechanic with the 131st Transportation Company, a Pennsylvania National Guard unit attached to the 101st Sustainment Brigade, and Sgt. 1st Class Alvin Beehler, the chief instructor for the vehicle recovery course from the 59th Ordnance Brigade, US Army Ordnance Center and School, flip a mine resistant ambush-protected vehicle with an M984 HEMTT wrecker. (Photo by Spc. Michael Vanpool)
Spc. Larry Smith, a mechanic with the 131st Transportation Company, a Pennsylvania National Guard unit attached to the 101st Sustainment Brigade, and Sgt. 1st Class Alvin Beehler, the chief instructor for the vehicle recovery course from the 59th Ordnance Brigade, US Army Ordnance Center and School, flip a mine resistant ambush-protected vehicle with an M984 HEMTT wrecker. (Photo by Spc. Michael Vanpool)

The 83-hour long course, taught over eight days instead of 10 in the schoolhouse, includes classroom instruction and hands on training with the M984 HEMTT wrecker and the M1089 wrecker. After completing the courses, the graduates are awarded the H8 additional skill identifier and valuable knowledge to help their missions here.

“The training definitely helps them because they will use it immediately,” said Staff Sgt. LeJuan Taylor, a recovery instructor with the 59th Ordnance Brigade, US Army Ordnance Center and School. “There’s a lot of soldiers here who do this, but have never been trained. We’re showing them the proper way to recover a vehicle and add a couple new techniques to help them.”

This marks the first time instructors from the Ordnance Center and School have deployed to a combat environment. The curriculum may be the same, but the scenery is a vast contrast to the training grounds of Fort Lee, VA, especially with the blistering sun and infamous 120-day winds.

“What makes this different is the environment,” Taylor said. “Over here you have to overcome a couple more obstacles than in traditional school.”

With constant deployments rampant, a lot of soldiers have not attended a formal recovery course before, and they have relied on on-the-job training to recover vehicles both on and off the wire.

“Some of the guys who have come are saying their company has broken two or three booms,” said Sgt. 1st Class Alvin Beehler, the chief instructor of the course and school. “This will teach them the right way to recover so they won’t break anymore.”

The terrain of Afghanistan produces many perils that can down a vehicle. Convoys of the 101st Sustainment Brigade make sure to travel with a recovery asset to prepare for any outcome.

“If you look at the situation where these soldiers ride through the mountains, it is way too easy for a vehicle to flip over or run into a ditch,” Taylor said. “Now they will know how to recover it.

When a vehicle rolls over or is stuck in the mud, the convoy commanders don’t ask who is H8 qualified, they just need someone to retrieve the vehicle. This training will add more formally trained wreckers to their arsenal.

“It’ll help us a lot. There’s a lot we didn’t know,” said Spc. Yvenson Dure, an all wheel mechanic with the 131st Transportation Company, a Pennsylvania National Guard unit attached to the 101st Sust. Bde. “They’re teaching us how to recover a vehicle quickly and not fail.”

The dedicated experts from the Ordnance School are showing the soldiers the proper way, with calculating weights and angles and several other factors.

“We’re here to show them the safe way to do it,” said Beehler. “We show them the fundamentals; it’s up to them to use it.”

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